happy holidays!

it's christmas and as a german employee I get a day off (and so does the rest of berlin) so I decided to walk around tiergarten

that's the brandenburg gate and that's a menorah. behind me is a giant christmas tree

tiergaten is a massive park in the middle of berlin with a bunch of governmental offices surrounding it. the park itself is mostly trees (at least in the part I went to)

that's the TV tower in the background (not a government office), the dome is the reichstag, the one on the left is a bunch of parliament stuff, and there are a bunch more to the left

and also this pretty weird tower

at 2:00 pm I realized it was a bell tower

and at 2:02 pm I found out that it's an actual instrument

every sunday in the summer and on public holidays (like christmas) someone goes up there and plays the bells!

this time he played some chrismtas music

apparently it's called a Carillon (from french)

[and then there's a joke about an israeli mall with the same name]

the man who plays the carillon at tiergarten is called Jeffrey Bossin

he was born in 1950 and he's the one who pushed the city to build this carillon in 1987 to honor its 750th birthday. he's been playing it ever since

when he finished his set he waved to his audience and a russian woman said to her group [in russian] “he's barely dressed!”

apparently she said that not because of russian stereotypes but because she actually knows him

after Jeffrey was done we invited that group of people (his friends/family/friends of family) and me (a complete stranger) to come up

the man is 74 years old and it's 187 steps!

he told us about the history of the tiergarten carillon and the instrument itself and argued with the russian woman who said the carillon in moscow is just a toy

the heaviest bell in the tiergarten carillon weighs eight tons and to play it you need to hit the key with 8kg of force

there's no electronics, no hydraulics, it's all mechanical

he's 74 years old!!!

and then he played jingle bells for us (and anyone within a mile) as an encore

it was very cool

happy holidays!